Pass, Vehicle, STS-86, Atlantis - Mir

This vehicle permit pass was distributed for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, STS-86, in September 1997. It belonged to Dennis Jenkins, a consulting aerospace engineer for the Space Shuttle Program, and author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, a definitive book detailing the development and first 100 flights of the space shuttles.

Vehicle permit passes allowed employees of the program, as well as the general public, to witness the launch of the space shuttles firsthand. Designed as a reusable spacecraft capable of flights to low Earth orbit, space shuttle orbiters carried astronauts to conduct scientific experiments, launch and repair satellites, and construct the International Space Station.

Dennis Jenkins donated the vehicle permit pass to the National Air and Space Museum in September 2011.